


poenitentia

by brokke



Category: Torchwood
Genre: (sort of), 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Mary Stays, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Friendship, Implied Sexual Content, Light Angst, Marriage Proposal, Snippets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:00:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26125387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brokke/pseuds/brokke
Summary: Five times Mary stayed and one time she promised.
Relationships: Mary & Team Torchwood, Mary/Toshiko Sato, Toshiko Sato & Team Torchwood
Comments: 14
Kudos: 24
Collections: Torchwood Fan Fests: Bingo Fest 2020





	poenitentia

**Author's Note:**

> Fic for the Torchwood Bingo Fest 2020! Prompts: interspecies romance, alternate realities.

**1.**

“Toshiko,” Jack said, voice raised from where he hid behind a skip, “what have I said about bringing your girlfriend on classified missions?”

“She didn’t ‘bring me’.” Mary raised her eyebrow when she caught sight of Jack’s pistol, gripped with confidence in both hands, ready to aim at the street ahead. “It’s date night. And I’m going to spend it -” she paused, ducked next to Jack as a piece of debris flew in their direction - “spend it with my _girlfriend_. Alien invasion or not.” 

“Technically,” Tosh cut in, “it’s got no intention of invading. Just lost.” She was sitting on her knees behind Jack, laptop precariously balanced as she typed, sending readings to Owen at the Hub. He was preparing a neurotoxin to incapacitate the threat, and whether that was on a temporary or permanent basis, Mary didn’t know. Couldn’t say she cared. That was all she’d gathered from Tosh’s recounting of the phone call as they’d sprinted out of the restaurant to her car.

“Lost and angry,” Jack added. A crash in the distance alerted them to the Thruurqeil’s emotional state. “By the looks of it.” He gave Gwen a mock salute, who nodded back from her position in a doorway across the road, crouched with a submachine gun. 

“Since rampaging aliens are a speciality of mine…” Mary met Jack’s eye, leaving the sentence open. They both knew what an asset she was, but Jack hadn’t been convinced to let a non-human species into their ranks, at least not officially. He’d have to let go of that particular prejudice, Mary thought; although, there was a chance it was more an issue of trust. Still. He wasn’t stupid.

“Don’t get in the way.” Catching sight of their target rounding the corner in front of them, Jack shot her a half-smile. “Cover me?”

Catching a glimpse of Tosh’s smile as her true form emerged, Mary grinned.

“Absolutely.”

* * *

**2.**

Toshiko focused on the sound of water. 

Nobody was in the Hub besides herself and Gwen, who was making her way from the armoury to the door, collecting reinforcements for the late-night stake-out. She’d drop the weapons off at the scene and head home to rest, returning to replace someone else early tomorrow morning.

Tosh was on stand-by at her desk. The details of the mission were fuzzy in her overtired brain, and she wanted nothing more than to get home to sleep. 

The mission comes first.

The water continued.

She buried her head in her hands, rubbing at her eyes, this morning feeling like so long ago. At God-knows-what past midnight, ‘long day’ didn’t really cover it.

Gwen got closer, her footsteps drowning out the noise of the water tower. She stopped at the desk and Tosh lifted her head.

“Hi.” 

“You off?”

“Yeah.” Gwen’s smile was one of understanding. And a little sympathy in there, too. They all knew the toll of these kinds of missions. “Everything alright?”

“Of course. I’d kill for a coffee, though.”

“I’m sure Ianto wouldn’t mind if you… anyway. Got to run, or I’ll get reprimanded over the comms.” Gwen cut off, digging in her bag for a moment, and pulled out a small paper bag. She held it out in Tosh’s direction. “Mary asked me to give you this.”

Tosh reached out and took it, feeling through the paper. She gave Gwen a smile. “Thank you.”

“No problem. Call if you need anything?”

“Sure. Goodnight.”

With the bag of weapons slung over her shoulder, Gwen turned and jogged towards the door. The alarms blared for a moment and she was gone.

Tosh took a breath. There was no sound besides the water.

She tipped the contents of the paper bag into her hand; out fell a brand-new and shiny key.

Had it not been for the peril of Cardiff, and by extension, the world, Toshiko would have spent tonight with Mary. Surrounded by boxes in Tosh’s apartment, they’d open a bottle of wine and celebrate the occasion with a ceremonial kiss, newly-cut keys held tight in their hands.

The rent of the new apartment would be double that of her current one.

That hardly mattered. There’d be double the number of people.

* * *

**3.**

“How does it work?”

Mary, spread across the sofa with a glass of wine in one hand, gave him a look. Despite the occasion, Owen’s only outfit change was a fabric star safety-pinned to his shirt - likely swiped from a Christmas tree. At least he’d tried.

“Owen,” she said, a sigh on her lips. “You’re going to have to be more specific.”

“You know exactly what I mean. Shove over.”

She swung her legs over the edge when he moved to sit next to her. 

Glancing at the room, Mary noticed Tosh nearby, handing a glass of fizz to Gwen. It had been Mary who’d convinced her that they should host the party, bearing in mind how protective Toshiko was of her space. _Their_ space. She figured it would do her partner some good to relax around the team a little, and a Christmas party - or rather, small gathering - was as good a place as any to begin. 

Not that Mary understood Christmas.

In all the years she’d been here, she’d never quite grasped what was so special about it. Seeing Tosh smile, well - that was worth anything, but some Earth traditions still failed to reach her. 

She focused her attention back to Owen. “I’m afraid I do.”

“So?”

“I told you. I can’t explain in terms you’d understand.” 

“Really?” Owen chuckled, turning to face her. “You know my job. Bloody try me.”

“I’m sure you’re very smart.”

“Hm.”

“Thing is, you’ll always see it from a human perspective. We’ve got an entirely different common chemistry to you.”

“Okay, so, what does that look like?”

“And besides, I’m not a scientist on my planet. It’s like getting a normal civilian to explain your bodies. I wouldn’t know where to start, especially considering your limited frame of reference-”

“Simple terms, then. You forget the details and I’ll forget my textbooks.”

“You’re not a man to settle for the abstract.”

He nodded in her direction. “That, you got right.”

They drank in silence for a moment, but in that room, it wasn’t really silence. Mary recognised the music from a century gone by; most likely Jack’s doing, who was preoccupied in a lively conversation with Rhys. 

She shut her eyes and focused on Tosh’s voice, drowning out the rest. 

It wasn’t that she didn’t know how it worked. ‘It’ meaning to take the body of a human host, of course. Owen had asked before. She’d tell him, one day - but tonight, when she watched the humans laugh, she didn’t want to talk about not being one of them.

Sometimes she’d rather forget.

* * *

**4.**

“Y’know Mary’s alien form…”

Tosh glanced up at Jack from the passenger seat of the SUV. A Weevil check was a regular occurrence, and Jack always took the opportunity to talk; he was predictable like that. Although, the conversation was never about him. It was an unspoken rule that Weevil time was checking-on-the-team time.

“What about it?” she asked.

“You ever…” He turned his gaze from the road to shoot her a smile, somewhat suggestively. “Do you use it for- you know.”

“Jack.” Despite an attempt to stay sincere, she caught sight of his expression and smiled. It wasn’t like she hadn’t expected that question. 

“I’m serious. Sort of.” 

“Well.” She shrugged and stared pointedly at the scanner in her hands. “We’ve… experimented-”

She was cut off by the crackle of comm static. 

“ _Tosh, Jack,_ ” said Ianto’s voice in her ear. “ _New sighting five minutes from your position. Take the street coming up on your left…”_

Truth was, Mary is ecstasy like she’s never known. 

She glows, sometimes; her real self peering through the gaps. Rarely, she emerges entirely.

And to Tosh it’s beautifully strange.

* * *

**5.**

“Ianto!"

“Hello?”

“You down there?"

“Room three. Is that Mary?”

“It is.”

She made her way to the third archive room, dodging the leaky pipe at the entrance. How she’d gained enough respect from the team to be allowed down here, Mary had no idea, but she was certainly grateful. 

It let her do something she should have done a long time ago.

“Can I help you?” Ianto asked as she appeared in the doorway. Holding a file in his hands, he gave her a polite half-smile, maintaining that cold and formal demeanour that she doubted would slip any time soon. It would take a lot to build his trust.

Maybe the box she held would be a step forward in that regard.

“What’s in the box?” Ianto asked. Right on cue.

Mary sighed, the memories of an old truce rushing back. Whilst she didn’t want to relive those negotiations from when she first decided to stay, this was a necessary move. For Tosh’s sake.

“It’s the pendant,” she replied. “The one Tosh was wearing.”

Ianto nodded. “You want me to archive it?”

Expecting a little more of a reaction, Mary frowned at his apparent indifference. “I… yes. If you could. For safekeeping”

“Absolutely.”

Ianto reached out to take the box when she handed it over. It was bigger than necessary and bound in a surplus of duct tape; this wasn’t an object she, or rather, Torchwood, could afford to lose. 

Handing it over was a show of good faith. So far, they’d had nothing but her word to go on that she wouldn’t use them for her own gain. And the word of an alien doesn’t hold much weight in the Institute. 

Regardless, she seemed to be doing alright.

“Let’s see. Arcateen five, is it?” Ianto asked.

“Toshiko told you?”

“I’ve done my research.” He moved in the direction of the shelves she knew were marked _A._

“I’m flattered.”

Just before Mary left, she turned back to face him, one hand on the doorframe. 

“Ianto.”

“Hm?”

“Do you want to come out for a drink?”

“A…” he stared at the ground, caught in his words for a moment. “With you?”

“Me, Tosh, and Gwen.” Straight to the point. That was what worked with Ianto. “We’re going out on Friday - that new bar down in Pontcanna.”

He considered this for a moment, two fingers tapping idly at the pendant box, still resting on top of the file. 

“Sounds fun.” He met her eye with an unexpected smile. This one, Mary thought, delving into her mental database of human expression, was genuine. “I’ll be there.”

She nodded. “Good.”

Well. That was easy.

Small steps, etcetera. This planet wasn’t all that dreadful.

* * *

**+1**

Sunday mornings are a moment to stop.

With no Torchwood, at least not every time, she clings to the dreamy atmosphere of late starts and Mary’s sleepy embrace. 

Today, she’s woken up with a mug of tea pressed into her hand, squinting in the winter sun that pours through open blinds. 

“Morning.”

“Good morning.” Mary heads round to the other side of the bed and throws herself onto it, moving close to Tosh with a grin. “Sleep well?”

Tosh nods, blowing on her tea. “A Saturday night Blowfish crisis will do that to you.”

“Wish I could have come.”

“Wish you were there.” She presses herself closer to Mary, reaching an arm out to wrap around her, when Mary shakes it off and backs up. 

“Hold on,” she says. “I’ve got something for you…”

“Oh?”

Blonde hair disappears when Mary ducks to reach under the bed, re-appearing with a package wrapped in a pillowcase. She scrambles back across the bed and holds it out, and Tosh puts her tea on the nightstand to push herself up. 

She reaches out. Mary tugs the pillowcase away - and Tosh is left holding the most beautiful knife she’s ever seen.

It’s more of a dagger, really - double-edged with an ivory-coloured handle, woven with strands of gold. The blade catches the sunlight and it seems to glow in her hands, the metal giving off an unnatural yet gentle warmth, as if it were itself alive; she runs her finger across the edge and feels its sharpened bite.

“It’s…” she catches Mary’s gaze. “This is incredible.”

Mary reaches forward to touch the handle. Tosh hands it to her with a gentle push and Mary turns it over in her hands, fitting it comfortably into her grip.

“This-” she says, tilting it sideways to let the blade catch the light - “is a weapon from the planet Siolea. It’s not used in combat nowadays - the last war ended after the one hundred and forty-fifth turn of the seventh moon - but these used to be gifted to one’s partner as a sign of commitment. A promise of protection in those days was the most common show of love.”

“And it’s still tradition?”

“Yep. They're just a little more decorative nowadays. Hence the bling.”

Mary hands it back to Tosh, who takes it with new questions on her tongue, tracing the tendrils of gold with her finger.

“I…” she begins, feeling apprehension creep up on her. “I’m not sure I understand.” 

“Well,” Mary shrugs. “Ceremony over there doesn’t translate so well to Earth customs, but… you don’t seem like the kind of girl who’d want a ring.”

It takes Tosh a moment to compute the words. She plays Mary’s voice over and over in her head, gripping the dagger as she feels a rush of something undefinable. 

Working up her courage, Tosh lets go of the dagger with one hand and reaches out to take Mary’s, pushing away a smile. “This isn’t a no…”

Tosh has always found it hard to read people. But the look on Mary’s face is one of unmistakable worry. 

“Oh?” 

“It’s just…” She takes a breath. “You don’t belong here. And don’t say something about belonging with me, because I know how it feels.”

Mary returns the squeeze on her hand. “You’d understand if I went home?”

“Yes. I would.”

There’s a moment of silence when Mary glances away with a bittersweet smile. Tosh can hear her heart in her chest, wanting nothing more than to take Mary’s face in her hands and kiss her senseless for the rest of time; the doubts circle her mind and she has to be _sure._

“Thing is,” Mary begins, “That’ll always be home, Toshiko. But it’s been so long, I… don’t know if I have a place there anymore. I have to move on. Doesn’t mean I haven’t argued with myself over that choice. Belonging, it’s...”

“It’s a tricky thing.” 

She understands. They’re both children of two worlds.

Mary nods. “And, what I feel for you - it scares me, how much you make this feel like home. But maybe, with time, it can be. And I want that more than anything.”

Tosh places the dagger at her side. She slips her hand out of Mary’s, reaching up to the back of her neck, pulling her gently closer. 

“I’m going to have to kiss you now,” she smiles.


End file.
